Edge of Paradise...

Mossman Gorge

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.

~Henry David Thoreau

The subtle magnetism is working overtime, my thoughts are still upon The Great Barrier Reef and the oldest rainforest in the world, The Daintree National Park...I actually got the opportunity to visit Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland. It is the point where World Heritage Rainforest meets World Heritage Great Barrier Reef.






I swam in this, one of the oldest rockpools in the oldest rainforest, (Daintree), on earth, and I swam in it. (It was bloody cold too).

It actually is much deeper than it looks too, especially over by the trees.

"The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man."

~Author Unknown

"Nature is man's teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence."

~Alfred Billings Street

A picture of up inside the tree..just stuck my camera inside and click.

"Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain."

~Henry David Thoreau

Rainforest canopy..

Mangrove trees on the Daintree River...

Daintree River..

Crocodile in the Daintree River..(I didn't swim here :) )

I think these are frog mouth owls (which are not technically owls at all). Again Daintree River.

Green tree snake, still on the river.

Cape Tribulation.

"Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war."

~Loren Eiseley

"The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out. "

~Annie Dillard

I Can Hear Music......

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more.

~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

(Climbing the sandhills of Moreton Island off the coast near Scarborough, Brisbane, QLD).

Random Snaps of Digital Camera Gratification...

I am heading off on a bit of business and part fun sojourn...Queensland, Great Barrier Reef and her associated towns and islands. The sea. Storylines, animals, music and the sea.

You never know what can happen if you don't try.

I think photography for me is like a moving meditation, an opportunity to wander off, capturing, in time, the wonders of our world, immediate environment and nature.

The picture two above is our ghost gumtrees, (eucalyptus), the bark never fails to remind me of a sort of skin.

The bird, I think is a White Ibis. (We have them living on our big house dam).

Honeyeaters, would have to be one of my favorite birds, their calls are so musical and cheeky.

I have a feeling there wont be any dust storms where I'm headed. :) Sharks, maybe, but no dust.

Sweet Juliet..

Ciao for now, but I'll be back and bring my impressions and pictures of one of the world's seven natural wonders. ...

Latro! Fremo!

Extended Family..

Our crested pigeons are back..

Actually they never went away, and they seem to have increased in numbers, as have the honey eaters, ducks, galahs, magpies and the ibis.

The crested pigeons are breeding two months earlier this year, (compared to last year). In the same little tree, just near our dog kennels and the side of the house. They have built another small nest, near their last year's nest.

This is the 2008 nest up above, if you look close near the bird's head you may make out last year's nest.

2007 nest, and the tree, minus it's foliage..

The result of the hatched eggs, such friendly, calm birds...and so big! It's amazing how quickly they hatch and grow, and accept us and the dogs.

2 Bee........

I've been thinking about the last time I saw bees.

September, 2007.

We used to have heaps of bees, some in the peppercorn tree near the horses, we all got on just fine, horses never bothered the bees and they all shared the water trough.

A gumtree that is up the back paddock, used to have a hive in it every year. Snakes shared it with the bees, and all got along as sweet as could bee.

Now for years, there has been less and less of the little critters.

The dogs and I found this walking along a back road, I sent the dogs off ahead to get away and snuck in for closer pictures.

Very quietly.

Then I ran. :)

Was all fine though, no harm to them, or me and some interesting snaps.

This spider has been living in one of the rain gauges. Sometimes it gets tipped out when I empty the gauge, (ha! not often, not much rain falls), but it makes its way back in.